#FemkuMag #30: A Haiku Journal

  #FemkuMag is a haikai poetry journal for womxn and non-binary folx. It is the dream child of haiku poet (and editor) Lori A. Minor. The journal has been in existence since June 2018, and Lori features poetry written by womxn and non-binary folx with all their sensibilities and issues. The poems can be gritty and raw, but are always worth the read.

This pedometer geek writer has been fortunate enough to have had Lori select a few haiku for publication including this latest issue. Thanks, Lori, for seeing something in my haiku. The following is one which she selected for Issue #30:

rock wall

she hangs onto her sanity

by her fingertips

~Nancy Brady, 2021

This issue features the Marlene Mountain contest winners. To read all of the haiku, Google #Femku.

A Home Town: 99-Word Flash

This week at Carrot Ranch, the blog prompt was to write about a home town, whether real or imagined in 99 words (no more, no less), and to go where the prompt leads. In fact, the cut-off date is August 3 so that anyone wishing to join in still has time to write about a home town.

Here is this pedometer geek writer’s take on the prompt:

A Home Town

It was not her hometown. Nor could it be; she didn’t grow up there. She was an import to the small city. Thus, she’d never quite fit in. That was okay with her since she found the pettiness of the locals still rehashing the urban renewal of the downtown back in the Sixties as silly as their current rant about the city’s creation of bicycle lanes causing general mayhem. There had been no deaths despite the dire predictions. She and her spouse loved the small city they now lived in, finding the area so livable (and also now bikeable).

~Nancy Brady, 2021

I am not sure that the word ‘bikeable’ is really a word. Is it hyphenated, or was it made up? To read some of the selections, check out http://www.carrotranch.com for all the stories about home towns near and far.

Sunflower Meltdown: A 99-word Flash Fiction

This week over at Carrot Ranch (www.carrotranch.com), the prompt was to write a story using the word meltdown in 99 words (no more, no less). This pedometer geek writer almost had a meltdown trying to come up with something worthwhile to write. Attempts were made, but nothing seemed to work. So, with a short amount of time left, like fifteen minutes, a quick story was written and submitted. It is not a great piece, but it is as follows:

Sunflower Meltdown

Surprise sunflowers came up in the flower bed that was planted with canna lilies. Seeds dropped by hungry birds at the feeder probably were the reason for the surprise.

The feeders were gone for the summer, but some of the birds remained. New birds also arrived, attracted by the bright yellow flowers. Bees, too, found the flowers attractive, but two birds were particularly enamored by the sunny faces.

Goldfinches, male and female, feasted on the ripening seeds. Whether it was the goldfinches or the heaviness of the sunflower heads, it was a meltdown, dipping their heads toward the earth.

~Nancy Brady, 2021

To read all the good meltdown stories, mosey on over to Carrot Ranch (www.carrotranch.com).  

Aloysius’s Discovery: 99-Word Flash Fiction

This week over at Carrot Ranch (www.carrotranch.com) the prompt was to write a story in 99 words (no more, no less) that included a feather.

This pedometer geek writer decided to continue the story of Aloysius, who was also called Rainbow. It was at the urging of one of my Red Room writer friends. It is as follows:

Aloysius’s Discovery

Aloysius, AKA Rainbow, serendipitously discovered that his multi-colored fur had magical powers. Blue seemed connected with sky. This began the day he found a blue jay’s feather on the ground. When he touched it with his front paw, he felt himself lifting from the ground. All four feet fanned out, and with his tail as a rudder, he flew.

Okay, Aloysius was a bit clumsy with flying at first, but with his trusty feather stuck behind his left ear, he soon soared over treetops and roofs. No one seemed to notice a flying cat, and he found it empowering.

~Nancy Brady, 2021

To read all the 99-word stories, check out http://www.carrotranch.com. Stories can also be submitted through July 13, 2021.

An Old Photograph (Part 2): 99-Word Flash

Normally, this pedometer geek writer only writes one piece for the prompt at Carrot Ranch, but after editing out some of it, okay over half of it, there was so much left out that I felt that a little more needed to be told. So, another 99-word piece of writing (no more, and no less) is as follows:

An Old Photograph (Part 2)

In this family photograph, Dad was probably nine or ten. When I told him I liked the knickers, he told me he hated wearing them. According to him, his mother didn’t want him to grow up. Long pants were a sign of being a young man and keeping him in knickers kept him a little boy.

 Personally, I think she was more pragmatic than that; she could cut down her older son’s pants when he outgrew them, converting them, saving money. I couldn’t argue with him since I wasn’t there. Besides, he was my father and I loved him.

~Nancy Brady, 2021

To see the photograph, check out the previous post. To check out all the 99-word flash fictions for this week’s prompt, check out http://www.carrotranch.com.

An Old Photograph: 99-Word Flash

This week’s prompt over at Carrot Ranch (www.carrotranch.com) was to write a story in 99 words (no more, and no less) about a vintage photograph. This pedometer geek writer is not sure when a photograph becomes vintage, but the photograph, about which the following story is written, is close to a hundred years old (and the people now exist only in the minds of those who still remember them).

An Old Photograph

It was a formal portrait of a mother sitting with her children all around her, and the youngest one on her lap. One of them was a boy in knickers, copping a pose of nonchalance, his fist under his chin and a most serious look in his eyes.

I first saw this photo when I was working on a family album of these children, their children, and grandchildren. This was my dad’s family: his mother, his brother, and his three sisters. I love the photo of my grandmother, my uncle, my aunts, and my dad when they were young.

~Nancy Brady, 2021

BP: Failed Haiku #67

This pedometer geek writer has been submitting to many of the haiku journals recently, and this writer has had a fair amount of success. Yes, there have been more than some rejections, too.

One of my favorite journals to submit to is Failed Haiku. The editors’ attitude toward haiku and senryu is much like mine: they admit to not understanding the difference between the two. This month the editor, Bryan Rickert, selected one of mine, and it is as follows:

politics…

the distance between

our galaxy and the next

~Nancy Brady, 2020

This haiku was first published at the Haiku Foundation’s weekly column, Haiku Dialogue, in 2020, but Failed Haiku is not averse to accepting previously published haiku. My thanks to Bryan for accepting this one. It is appreciated.

To read all of the haiku/senryu, check out http://www.failedhaiku.com and click on the link for the issue. Further, the results of the H. Gene Murtha Contest along with commentary is also available in the issue. The link for the latest issue of Prune Juice, another English senryu journal, is also there.

Aloysius: A Fairy Tale (99-Word Flash Fiction)

This week over at Carrot Ranch (www.carrotranch.com), the prompt was to write a story in 99 words (no more and no less) about a cat named Rainbow and being outdoors, and to go where the prompt sends you. This pedometer geek wrote the following story:

Aloysius: A Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there was a cat called Rainbow. He never understood why his humans picked that name because he had white fur. Snowball, maybe, although his name was Aloysius, which seemed like a sensible name to him. Aloysius was a stray wandering the countryside until one day when, after a downpour, a young girl found him shivering by the side of the road. Aloysius was soaked and the drops glistened on his fur. The sun began to shine and the refraction of the light broke into seven distinct colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

~Nancy Brady, 2021

To read all the stories written by the Wranglers over at Carrot Ranch, check out http://www.carrotranch.com

BP: Stardust Haiku and more

Haiku are short poems, and every word and syllable count. This pedometer geek writes and then often edits again and again the same haiku to get the meaning that I want out of the poem. Once it is published, what a reader gets out of it, well, that is a different story. Frankly, at that point it is out of my hands anyway, but I digress.

I have had editors wish to publish a particular haiku of mine, but with modifications over the years (that is, edit), and depending on the haiku, I am agreeable as long as the general meaning doesn’t change (for me). I have had several esteemed poets ask to move a line or word around. For example, the editor of Stardust Haiku; Poetry With a Little Sparkle, Valentina Ranaldi-Adams has asked to move a word from one line to another for better flow (often the cutting word), and I have agreed. When, however, a haiku is changed without my permission, it bothers me.

The June edition of Stardust Haiku: Poetry With a Little Sparkle (Issue #54) has just been published, and I am excited to say that one of my haiku has been selected by the editor. The issue is filled with haiku from poets from more than fifteen countries. There are haiku from poets from five different continents: Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. Haiku is a truly global poetry form. Thank you, Valentina, for selecting one of mine, and it is as follows:

honeymoon

he tucks a peony

behind her ear

~Nancy Brady, 2021

To read all the haiku for the June edition (or any of the previous fifty-three editions), check out http://www.stardusthaiku.blogspot.com, and click on the link. Again, thanks Valentina.

My haiku, as written, for Pure Haiku is as follows:

silver ferns open

to reveal the path trodden

Maori tradition

~Nancy Brady, 2021

6 – 26

Thanks Freya Pickard for choosing my haiku for publication. Her Pure Haiku (www.purehaiku.wordpress.com) site only publishes the traditional 5/7/5 haiku on a particular theme. The current theme is Unfurling, but the word itself can not be used in the haiku itself.

Having recently begun writing without the convention of mandatory syllable counts (in the last several years), it is not easy going back to the more proscribed pattern; however, this pedometer geek writer is rather proud of this haiku.

Thanks again Freya for selecting it. To read all of the haiku, which she has chosen, check out http://www.purehaiku.wordpress.com.

purehaiku

silver ferns open
to reveal path untrodden
Maori tradition

© Nancy Brady 2021

Nancy is a pharmacist by vocation, a poet by avocation, but basically just a bum who loves to read cheesy romances and spine-tingling thrillers.

This haiku is part of our Unfurling series…

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